So, what is this based on? What country is this school and curriculum does this schedule reflect? It looks really neat!
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So, what is this based on? What country is this school and curriculum does this schedule reflect? It looks really neat!
This is a TL I'm working on where Scotland and Ireland end up in a PU not long after the Norman conquest of England; England deteriorates into a bit of a backwater while the United Kingdom of Scotland, Ireland and the Isles (UKSII) ascends to a similar role to that of the OTL British Empire.
This particular school is called "St Margaret's High School" (after St Margaret of Scotland) so is most likely to be in Scotland, although given she was the wife of Malcolm Canmore who is seen as the "founding father" of the Union (despite some brief de facto intermissions early on in its history), it's not unheard of for things in other parts of the country to be named after her either.
The curriculum - I assume you're asking mainly about history and geography given where we are here! - is definitely somewhat navel-gazy in the first three years, not unlike the OTL English National Curriculum, focussing exclusively on UKSII and its current and former colonies.
But in the final two years, high school department heads in these subjects get a wide selection of possible "thematic modules" to choose from. The compulsory "non-thematic" modules are historiography, archaeology, and palaeography for history, and geology, hydrology, and meteorology for geography. Thematic modules, of which you do four in a year, look at a particular place/period. There are plenty of non-UKSII ones, although in practice a split of 75% "domestic" and 25% "foreign" is the norm, and more than 50%-50% is basically completely unheard of outside of specialised private schools or homeschooling.
To briefly mention natural philosophy, since this is what diverges most from OTL: because it isn't split into physics, chemistry, and biology, these are taught linearly.
Students do physics in the first three years. Year 1: classical mechanics and materials science, year 2: fluid dynamics, electricity and magnetism, year 3: particle physics and radiation). It's worth noting that basic equation curves with rudimentary differentiation and integration are taught in 1st year geometry, complementing the teaching of classical mechanics; likewise, trigonometry is taught in 3rd year geometry to help with particle physics and radiation - so the order is basically flipped compared to most OTL maths curricula which tend to cover trig before basic calculus.
Then chemistry is taught in 4th year: periodic table and properties of elements, types of chemical bond/structure, types of chemical reaction, acids, bases, salts, and finally a brief examination of types of organic compounds, polymers, and isomers. In their final year, they do biology: micro-organisms and plants in autumn term, animals in winter term, and human biology in summer term; each of these looking at taxonomy, features, cell biology, each of the vital processes (MRS GREN), and reproduction. Until the mid-20th century, the human biology component included "taxonomy" in the form of UKSII's approach to "racial science", but this has since been excised.
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I just want to say this isn't just worldbuilding: this is WORLD-ENGINEERING!
The little details of the butterflies and how they might everything from educational curriculums to cuisine interest me as much as the major events.
NICE WORK!
So there's a second St Margaret of Scotland? How is this one distinguished from the first St Margaret (the wife of Malcolm Canmore and sister of Edgar the Ætheling of England)? Or is she (the first one) butterflied by your PoD?
Very impressive details of the curriculum, etc, by the way.
Sorry, that was my sleep deprivation talking - I meant Malcolm Canmore. Fixed!
And thank you!
I can only speak for myself but I would like to see more of this world.